Browsing all posts in Photography.

Photo Project for Young Families

By Steve Russell This article falls within the “I wish I had done that” category.  After my children were grown and off to college or on their own, a woman I knew showed me a photo album that really made me wish I had done the same thing with my family.  The reason I didn’t was [...]

DSLR, or Point and Shoot?

I’ve received several requests for advice lately, on how to decide whether to purchase a D-SLR or a point-and-shoot camera. Some folks are taking advantage of the seasonal sales to get themselves a new toy; some folks are asking for advice before buying a camera for the photographer in their life. As with most things [...]

Studio Session -Technical Aspects

By Steve Russell Two weeks ago I posted an article on my first studio session. One post to the article and a few emails and comments from friends asked for more of the technical side of the session and I decided it was a fair request. However, before I go on, let me stress that [...]

Build a Home Photo Studio for Under $800

I have plans to turn one of the spare rooms in my home into a photo studio. I abruptly got frustrated with the surfaces and common areas of my home, and the lack of light in those areas. Living in Arizona as we do, we constructed our home to be energy efficient and let in [...]

First Time Studio Session

By Steve Russell Not too long ago a friend asked me how someone became a professional photographer and it reminded me of a very old joke about a tourist asking a New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall. The answer was, “Practice, practice, practice.” I think that answer applies to photography as well. I [...]

Review – The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers is one of the latest in Scott Kelby’s long, long list of photography-oriented publications. I also own this book’s predecessor for Photoshop CS3, also by Kelby. I purchased the CS5 book because of the significant enhancements that were made to the program, but many (if not all) [...]

What Does Your Best Shot Say About You?

I spent some time before writing this article searching for the photographs that I, personally, consider to be among my best shots. Here are three of them: In considering these shots, and others that I’m fond of, it’s easy for me to see that I gravitate towards landscapes. I know precisely why that is – [...]

Photography “Bucket” List

Whether or not we reduce it to writing, I think all of us have a mental list of people, places and things we’d like to photograph. Recently I decided to actually write a list of places I’d really like to photograph – sort of a “bucket list.” It isn’t all inclusive but for now, they [...]

Rounded Corner Tutorial

Last weekend I was messing around in the back yard, trying to determine how best to photograph subjects in harsh light where the sun was directly overhead (another topic for another day). I had my Lensbaby Composer on my Canon EOS 7D and was just messing around. When I got back to my computer and [...]

Set Your Goals for 2011

Setting periodic goals for yourself is an excellent way to continue to enhance your photography skills. We are now less than two months away from 2011 (it sneaked up on us so fast!), so now is a great time to start thinking about what you’d like to accomplish in the forthcoming year. Following is a [...]